


Somebody to Love

by Blanquette



Series: Corner Bakery [4]
Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Bakery, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Bakery, Beginnings, M/M, One Shot, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-24 01:00:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13202322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blanquette/pseuds/Blanquette
Summary: Hoseok leaves, and comes back.





	Somebody to Love

**Author's Note:**

> First time I'm writing any showho, or anything featuring Shownu prominently for that matter. Hope I did all right!

**1.**

It’s snowing that night, when he gets home. Too much to be enjoyable; a thick coat of frost and slosh that somehow finds its way in Hyunwoo’s shoes. He shivers. The streets around his neighborhood are empty, empty like his apartment has been for the better part of two weeks. There’s a pang in his chest as he opens his front door, a hope that maybe this time, there will be a familiar shape curled up on his couch, watching re-runs half asleep, groggily welcoming him back.

But the door opens on empty, and the hole Hoseok left in Hyunwoo’s chest when he disappeared eats more of him still.

The window stayed open when Hyunwoo ran out in the morning, and the apartment is almost as cold as the outside. He closes it, sits on his couch still fully dressed, and stares at the black screen of the television. His reflection in it stares back at him, distorted and drained of colors. It feels realer than the real thing. Hyunwoo stops hoping.

 

**2.**

Somehow, he knows before he evens steps on the first stair leading up to his floor. He stills for a bit, a simple joy spreading in his chest, breathing life into him. He lets himself feel it, before he takes one step at a time, no rush, don’t be ridiculous, what if you’re wrong.

He’s not. The door opens on a familiar shape curled up on his couch, watching re-runs half asleep. A slow smile spreads on Hoseok’s face when he spots him in the entryway and Hyunwoo stands still, just staring, soaking in the sight.

“What? Didn’t expect me?”

Hyunwoo finally moves, kicks off his shoes, hiding a shy smile in his scarf.

“Not really. Thought we’d lost you for good. You’re fired, by the way.”

Hoseok laughs.

“I know. I went there this afternoon. Kihyun says he won’t hire me back but then he didn’t hire anyone else either, so I think I still stand a chance.”

Hyunwoo finally shrugs out of his coat, and comes to sit next to Hoseok on the too small couch.

“He was waiting. Changkyun covered for you.”

“He’s back?”

“Yeah. He’s gonna stay all winter. Spend new year at Kihyun’s parents.”

Hoseok’s eyes widen as he crosses his legs underneath him.

“Meeting the parents? They’re getting serious.”

Hyunwoo nods. He wants to ask. Where have you been. Why didn’t you say anything. It’s too cold, to wake up and find you gone.

He doesn’t. Instead, he speaks of the others, as if Hoseok had been gone for months instead of sixteen days. It’s easier, this way. By the time Hoseok falls asleep for good and he goes to his own bed, the hole in his chest has patched itself up.

 

**3.**

Kihyun tries hard to be mad, but there’s Changkyun laughing behind the counter, and Hyunwoo standing calmly to Hoseok’s side, and Hoseok is smiling that smile that eats half his face. So Kihyun just rolls his eyes, throws him an apron, and disappears back into the kitchen.

Like this, Hoseok gets his job back. He crashes at Hyunwoo’s every night again. Drinks coffee with Hyungwon, gets more terrible souvenirs from Jooheon, still refuses to pose for Minhyuk’s disastrous anatomic studies.

Hyunwoo watches him. Makes sure he’s there, and real, and that the hole in his chest will stay filled. But there’s a sense of impermanence tarnishing their every move, and in the few minutes between sleep and wakefulness, when he just barely opens his eyes, Hyunwoo is always sure Hoseok is gone.

Somehow, the new year is around the corner, and Hoseok still lives out of his sofa.

 

**4.**

Hoseok watches re-runs again. Hyunwoo sits next to him and stares at the snow through the window. It’s so dark he can barely see the buildings across the street, and if the focuses on the snow instead, it’s like there’s nothing else. Just the snow, and the night, and the too small sofa that still somehow fits them both.

Hoseok clears his throat and Hyunwoo turns to him, waiting on him to speak. Hoseok’s eyes do not leave the television.

“You’re not going back home for the new year?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Hyunwoo’s gaze drifts back to the window, to the snow, to the emptiness outside.

“There’s no home to go back to.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Hyunwoo shifts, watching the show unfolding on television. Beautiful people saying beautiful things.

“What about you?”

He looks at Hoseok from the corner of his eyes. There’s a small smile, a shake of the head. Hoseok shifts, brings his knees up against his chest.

“Not going either. Guess it will be you and me, then.”

On TV, the lead actress stands on an empty street, light rain falling over her. She’s crying. She still looks beautiful.

“You’re staying?”

Hoseok shrugs, an effort to look casual. Hyunwoo focuses back on the TV. Someone is hugging the crying woman, saying things he’s too distracted to hear properly. _I_ _’m sorry_ and _I love you_ and _please don_ _’t go_.

“I’m just… I don’t want to be a guest anymore.”

There’s a silent beat, Hyunwoo letting the words unfurl in his mind, their meaning sink in. The snow is falling harder now, blurring everything, muffling sound. _I don_ _’t know what to do when it comes to you_ , says the actress on TV.

“Where did you go, for two weeks?”

“I went… I went home.”

Hyunwoo turns to look at Hoseok now, at his profile, at the tired smile curving his full lips.

“I went to make sure I was not welcome there anymore. I guess you’re not the only one with no home to go back to.”

“You came back here.”

The smile grows on Hoseok’s features and he turns to look at Hyunwoo, suddenly bright.

“I did.”

In the fictional world unfolding before them, the rain stops.

 

**5.**

It takes days for Hyunwoo to realize that the fear when he wakes-up is gone. And when he does, he notices other things, too. Hoseok is finally filling the spaces everyone carved for him in the fabric of their lives. He’s not flickering anymore, always on the verge of bolting. He makes promises instead. He breaks them, too, sometimes, and there’s fights and resentment and instead of running he stays and apologies because he finds that it is worth it.

The new year comes and goes and they spend it alone but together, and it’s enough, like this. Hyunwoo suggests that maybe they should move if Hoseok is to stay, because he barely fit on the sofa as it is, and it is no way to live one’s life. Hoseok refuses. This is home, he says. It’s small and cramped, but it is home.

There’s the terrible drawings Jooheon did on the bathroom wall one night of too much drinking. The food stains they never managed to get off the ceiling from Changkyun’s overenthusiastic cooking. The height chart they jokingly made for Kihyun in the entryway. Tangible traces of countless memories making up the sum of their life together. Hyunwoo doesn’t talk about moving anymore.

 

**6.**

It comes gradually. Hoseok would get up, waking up Hyunwoo, and complain of his back hurting. Hyunwoo would wordlessly lift his cover, and Hoseok would burrow under it with him, a coy smile on his lips.

After a while, Hoseok doesn’t look for a pretext anymore. He just follows Hyunwoo when he’s done brushing his teeth, and they will share the bed, sometimes talking in hush whispers until one of them falls asleep, sometimes just fitting their tall limbs comfortably enough, and closing their eyes.

They wake-up entangled, there’s embarrassed laughing, and a trace of yearning, maybe, too. They test boundaries. Find out how much is allowed with light touches and shy smiles. They get comfortable, doing more and more, until it shows.

There’s a knowing glint in Kihyun’s eyes when they come together in his bakery. Changkyun’s very subtle wiggling of his eyebrows when he catches Hyunwoo’s gaze. Jooheon’s loud _finally_ , Hyungwon whacking him over the head while Minhyuk asks if the four of them should go out. Hoseok rolls his eyes. Hyunwoo smiles. It’s just what it is. Love, and a home.


End file.
